Twitter Reactions: Debutant Prabath Jayasuriya, top-order batters shine as Sri Lanka dominate the second day

Sri Lanka bowlers dismissed the Australian batters early in the first session to take charge with the bat thereon.

By Vaishnavi Thiagarajan Iyer

3 Min Read

Prabath Jayasuriya
info
Prabath Jayasuriya. (Photo Source: Sri Lanka Cricket/Twitter)

Australia had ended the first day on a positive note and looked to keep the momentum going on the second day too as the batters continued from where they had left off, which was 298/5. Thanks to the century stand between Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschange, it helped Australia steady their innings in the middle, which was followed by the duo getting their respective hundreds.

Alex Carey was in great form as he started off the second day with the bat alongside Smith. He hit Prabath Jayasuriya for a couple of fours and aimed at a big total on the scoreboard, but the former had the last laugh as he dismissed Carey for a 61-ball 28. But the bowler did not just stop there. He came into the attack for his next over and picked up Mitchell Starc to bag a five-wicket haul in his first-ever Test outing.

With the two wickets, Sri Lanka needed just three more to put a full stop to Australia’s innings. Kasun Rajitha picked up skipper Pat Cummins to bring the visitors to eight down, and Jayasuriya followed next as he finished off his dream spell adding one more wicket to his cap in the form of Nathan Lyon, thereby taking the tally to six in the innings.

In the process, Jayasuriya became the seventh Sri Lankan to bag a five-for on debut. Maheesh Theekshana dismissed the final batter Mitchell Swepson to get his first wicket as Australia ended up scoring 364 runs. Smith remained unbeaten at 145*(272) as the hosts walked out to bat with the aim of adding as many runs as possible to go past Australia.

Sri Lanka top order displayed a brilliant batting effort

Starc got Australia an early breakthrough when he dismissed Pathum Nissanka (6 off 25) quickly after Lunch. Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis handled the situation wisely and made the decision to wait out the period patiently before stepping up their running. The visiting pacers initially put them to the test, but they later stepped up and added runs to the score. Their partnership would have been broken if Swepson had not missed the catch.

The batters utilized that opportunity and went on to share a hundred-run stand between themselves to provide a major boost to the Sri Lankan innings. Their 152-run stand came to an end when Swepson dismissed skipper Karunaratne and he walked off scoring 86 runs off 165 balls. Mendis (84* off 152) played a composed knock and Angelo Mathews (6* off 36) assisted him well as the two ended the day at 184/2.

Here is how Twitter reacted to the day two play of Sri Lanka vs Australia

 

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